DUBLIN DARE+ Train the Trainer

Title: Dublin Train-the Trainers week

Targeted competences:

The competencies that are targeted in the preparation for the fisrt summer school are: Teamwork, Leadership, Communication. These will be the competencies students will be expected to acquire in the summer school.

Facilitators also had to understand and demonstrate these competencies in their teaching roles.

Link to programme competences or aims:

The aim of the train-the- trainers programme is to introduce participating universities and other key stakeholders to the notion of a competency summer school in the area of informal learning. As this was the first summer school, it was important to bring together those who were going to be facilitating it to to discuss what its goals were, what its teaching & learning strategies would be, and what pedagogies would be used to higlight the competencies.

Learning outcomes for the session

At the end of this session trainers will be able to:

Define Leadership, Communication and Teamwork
Discuss the current context of competencies in HE
Contextualise and define levels of Leadership, Communication and Teamwork
Be able to embed Leadership, Communication and Teamwork in a summer school curriculum
Design a curriculum for the Padua summer school, including activites for each day, that include Leadership, Communication and Teamwork.

Learning outcomes for summer schools:

These learning outcomes were written by the train the trainers during the summer school. This was done as an exercise/learning activity with the group. It allows for a shared understanding of the goals of the summer school.

When you have finished this intensive summer school you will be able to:

Define and appraise the concepts of teamwork, leadership and communication and their impact on people’s lives and society, and apply this knowledge in different contexts.
Recognise characteristics of good practice in teamwork and evaluate the effectiveness of the team as a whole.
Work in an integrated way to achieve team results by pulling together the contribution of each team member to construct a collective identity.
Develop leadership in decision making and to be able to take risk with appropriate discernment.
Develop strategies to implement a common vision that motivates others.
Be critically reflective and committed to achieving common goals.
Listen actively, respect the opinions of other members of the team, negotiate, and manage any conflict that arises.
Express yourself clearly and convincingly, and utilise tools and strategies to achieve effective communication.
Identify personal and professionals challenges in the areas of leadership, teamwork and communication, and develop strategies to address these.
Develop a personal learning plan and identify specific areas of interest for your future development in the areas of leadership, communication and teamwork.

Pre-requisite learning/competence

Trainer: Academic Developer/ University Lecturers/competency experts.
Trainees: Those who will be working with university staff or learners to embed skills and competencies in informal learning situations. Summer school faciitators.

Resources

In general: laptops and projector, markers and whiteboard, markers papers and pencils, internet connection, post it notes for evauations.
Lego for lego activity

Session duration

The TT is a 5-days programme; days were divided into morning and afternoon sessions, 3 hours per session. The final day was a half day.

Number of participants: Aprox. 25

Sessions description [structure, parts, activities]

Theoretical background: Teaching and learning strategies were based on socially constructed models of education, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, with an emphasis on group work and application of theory into practice.

The summer Train the Trainer was a 4.5-day programme, organised according to the following schedule:

Day 1: February 23rd

Competencies worked on: Teamworking, Leadership and Communication
- Getting started: ice breaking activities. The group was a large group from a variety of countries. Any ice breaking, introductory activiteis would work here.
- Introduction of the training program: agenda and expectations of the week
- Activity 1: The Lego Challenge and TCD Innovation Academy. The lego challenge is an activity where groups are given lego and have to design a series of concepts. The Lego Challenge is a fun and fast-paced group activity that illustrates the key research skills of creative thinking, innovation and focus under pressure! Teams are challenged to build a series of increasingly more difficult objects (often concepts), against the clock. They are judged as teams.
- Lactivity 2: Lecture: The current context of competencies in HE.
- Activity 3: breakout groups: Contextualising the 3 competencies. Groups were formed with each group taking one competency, and exploring it in detail, according to current contexts. This was followed by plenary session and presentations from three groups of their competency.
Day 2: Competence worked on: Teamworking, Leadership and Communication

Defining competencies.
Participants were divided into groups and each group took one competency, which they had to define.
Round table: Discussion/Lecture about Indicators followed by breakout groups: Developing Indicators
Assessment. Lecture on competency assessment followed by a round table discussion.

Day 3: Competencies worked on: Communication, Leadership and Teamwork
All groups: Led by Ciara’Farrell

Activities – Trainers modelling informal learning activities focused in communication, leadership, and teamwork.
Activity 1: B’day queue: Teamwork. The large group has to form a line – without any speaking being undertaken – where participants’ birthdays determine the order of the group.
Activity 2: Managing group work from a Leadership Perspective Leadership: Participants are asked to review short narratives and to identify relevant metaphors that are instrumental in understanding and managing group-work from a leadership perspective. Participants were provided with handouts including narratives to be reviewed in small groups
Activity 3: Leadership & Teamwork in debating : A discussion and presentation on the attributes that can be achieved through student debating.
Activity 4: Developing Oral Communication . A presentation on how development of oral communication has been achieved in one of the participanting Universities.
Workshop, followed by break out groups followed by plenary on implications for assessment ; course design, methodologies and practice. Emphasis on how to consider assessment of competencies, and to consider the differences between assessment of, as and for learning.

Day 4: Competence worked on: Leadership, Teamwork and Communication

Activity 1: ‘Guiding the blind’ (Teamwork). Particpants pair up and one person in each pair is blindfolded. A course has to be undertaking by each pair, with the role of the person who is not blindfolderd to lead the other person, without touching them. This is followed by a discussion of what emotions participants experienced and what they learnt about teamwork.
Activity 2:vLeader: Padova: (Leadership) vLeader is an educational simulator that provides a lifelike work experience. Participants take on the role of a leader and interact with artificially intelligent avatars in a simulated organizational context. Users have the possibility to recall real life extra-academic events and consider which could be the possible consequences of these events in different real situations. Software was provided. The trainer presented the educational simulator; participants in groups explored the with scenarios
Activity 3 –presentation on Leadership and educational games.
Developing Written Communication : University of Granada
Activity 4: Student campaign workshop (Teamwork/Leadership)
Aim To explore the skills demonstrated in organisation and implementation of a student led campaign.

Learning Outcomes

Participants should have an understanding of how a range of competencies are demonstrated through participation in a student led campaign. These competencies may include, but are not limited to:

Ability to communicate both orally and through written word in first language
Ability to plan and manage time
Capacity to generate new ideas
Ability to search for. Process and analyse information from a variety of sources
Ability to identify, pose and resolve problems
Ability to apply knowledge to practical situations
Ability to work in a team
Ability to communicate with non-experts in one’s field
Interpersonal and interaction skills
Ability to design and manage projects
Ability to motivate people to move towards common goals.

Method

Short group discussion and presentation introducing student campaigns; purpose of, themes etc, followed by small group work session. Groups will present their ideas and receive feedback from other groups. Workshop will close with participant’s reflections on the group work and a discussion around the kinds of skills exercised in the running of a student campaign.

Running Session

Open group discussion around student campaigns

Purpose
Benefits (to individual and community)
Consideration for organising campaigns (purpose, level of engagement, communication, logistically issues

Introduce common themes for student campaigns

health (mental, physical, sexual)
equality
leadership
Education etc.

Introduce activity; designing a campaign around one of the themes highlighted.

Allow participants time to design campaign

Present campaign to group for feedback

Reflection on skills required to organise a successful student led campaign.

Day 4: Curriculum design and development of summer school.

Workshop on curriculum design. In this workshop, participants began to design the summer school based on the activiteis undertaken and the information gathered during the week.

Activities: Think about the activities that are being presented.
Use them to generate ideas/activities within your competency groups
Think about how you might assess/ help students to think about what they have learnt in each activity
Think outside the box!
Think informal/non formal learning
Think about learning spaces
Where can learning take place this week?
When can it take place?
How can we make learning fun and the week successful?

An example was given to the group:

‘Masterchef’
Divide students into teams of 3 (multicultural)
Each team has to produce a meal for the rest of the groups. Tuesday to Thursday.
Task on day two is to devise and agree a criteria for assessing the winner
Learning takes place in evening time – dinner preparation/shopping etc.
Competencies: teamwork/leadership/communication
Assessment: Formative. The larger group decides which group wins and why.
Participants were divided into competency groups
Brainstorm possible activities
Have at least one activity that can take place during the day and one that can take place ‘outside the box’
Decide as a team on at least two activities
Define what you want the students to be able to achieve in the activity? (outcomes)
Decide whether/how these activities can be assessed.
Present back to the larger group.

Breakout groups followed by plenary on implications for course design, methodologies and practice.

Day 5: Leadership, Teamwork and Communication

Presentations from communication/leadership/teamwork on workshop curriculum .

Mode of evaluation for the sessions:

Mixed method evaluation was used for the workshops including:

Post-it-note evaluation after each session
Daily reflections in plenary session
Think-pair-share formative evaluation

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